Back in March, the Davenport Panthers ended the Bobcats’ season in heartbreak: two wins short of a national championship. Seven months later, Ohio gets a chance to prove revenge is a dish best served on ice.
The team will travel to Grand Rapids, Mich., for a two-game set with the Panthers starting tonight before taking on the Oakland Grizzlies in a Sunday matinee. Ohio went only 2-4 against the two last year, and the national semifinal loss to Davenport still sticks in the collective craw.
“We’re looking forward to it, I know the guys are anxious,” coach Dan Morris said. “It’s my job not to get them overanxious. But if they’re emotionally attached to it and really want to beat these guys, then we’ll ride that out.”
Not becoming over-emotional is something Morris has stressed at practice all week after Ohio lost its cool in a hostile atmosphere last weekend at Penn State, when it took 21 penalties in two games.
Staying out of the sin bin will be even more vital to keep everyone fresh during a three-game weekend.
“You’ve got to be smart and you can’t take penalties because that’s going to keep other guys off the ice,” forward Nick Rostek said. “So you’ve got to play smart — that’s just not taking penalties but also making the smart play. Dump it in, quick changes, things like that.”
The Bobcats also have been dealing with more than their fair share of injuries early on, with nearly a third of the regular lineup missing a part of the team’s first nine games.
Though Rostek will return from a three-week absence against the Panthers, seven of Morris’s regulars will miss the weekend, triggering the coach to switch his game plan on the fly.
“I’ll equate it into football terms,” he said. “Defensively we’re putting linebackers on the line because we have no lineman, and we’re moving our cornerbacks up to linebacker, and we’re playing with no safeties. And we’re running a wildcat offense all the time.”
Going into a hostile arena without all his firepower is something no coach wants to do.
But though injuries have his players hobbling this season, Morris said it doesn’t exonerate the team as a whole, and that he expects his healthy players to step up.
“You can make excuses and say we’re missing these guys and these guys, but that takes away from the guys that are playing,” he said. “And if the guys that are playing think we’re going to be a better team once I’m out of the lineup, that’s a big problem.
“We’re a better team with those guys in the lineup, and they’ve got to believe it.”
cd211209@ohiou.edu
Up Next
OHIO vs. Davenport
8:30 tonight, 7:30 Saturday
Patterson Ice Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich.
OHIO vs. Oakland
2:30 p.m. Sunday
ONYX Ice Arena, Rochester, Mich.
